Mechanical garage door openers can pull or push a garage door with enough force to injure or kill people and pets if they become trapped. All modern openers are equipped with “force settings” that make the door reverse if it encounters too much resistance while closing or opening. Any garage door opener sold in the United States after 1992 requires safety eyes—sensors that prevent the door from closing if obstructed. Force settings should cause a door to stop or reverse on encountering more than approximately 20 lbs (9.07 kg) of resistance. Safety eyes should be installed a maximum of six inches above the ground. Many garage door injuries, and nearly all garage door related property damage, can be avoided by following these precautions.
The door and tracks at this stage of the repair are in a minimum-energy condition. This is a good opportunity to work on any hinges, bearings, rollers, cables, or tracks that need tightening, repair, lubrication, or replacement. Again, these parts should be available from the spring source, and should be ordered based on a pre-inspection. Home-improvement stores carry some of these parts, but the type and quality may not be the best.
The open-ended work-order trick: You may be very surprised if you allow work to proceed without signing a work order with a specified price. Or, you may sign a work order, and think you're protected against open-ended wallet-reaching, only to find a much higher price due at the finish than you expected, because you signed a "parts as needed" order that got loaded up with a long list of parts (that likely were still in serviceable condition). You might have been quoted a price, but then get a bill for that price plus a lot more added for the "service call" and the "parts", and be told the quote was just for the labor. While this is the normal way of abusing your finances down at the hospital, you shouldn't agree to it for a garage door service call. These guys are not doctors.
Once the springs are torqued, the setscrews tightened, and the locking pliers and winding rods removed, do not play with turning the torsion bar using the winding rods. Doing so even momentarily can relieve the tension on the lift cables, which then easily slip off the drums. Replacing the cables on the drums can be difficult without repeating the entire spring unwinding-winding procedure again, and the cables can be damaged if tension is applied while they are off the drums.
Though we’ve grown a great deal, we still approach each customer with a focus on personalized service. We want to meet your needs as effectively as possible. We also provide a sense of urgency to each job, knowing that garage door needs often represent a significant life or work slowdown. Get in touch with us to schedule a visit, ask questions or to learn more about what we offer and how we can help get your garage door back up and running again.
And for some extra features, you'll appreciate accessing the system through the MyQ smartphone app. You can set up this Chamberlain opener to automatically close the door after 1, 5, or 10 minutes, which is great for people who are a bit forgetful. We also really like the motion-detecting control panel, which turns on lights whenever it records nearby movement.
Angle iron provides a stronger installation and reduces vibration, which helps extend the opener’s life span. In an unfinished garage, attach the angle iron directly to the face of a joist with 1-in. lag screws. For finished ceilings, attach angle iron along the bottom of a joist with 3-in. lag screws. Hang the opener using two more lengths of angle iron and nuts and bolts. Use lock washers or thread-locking adhesive to keep vibration from loosening the nuts.
Squealing, screeching, or grinding noises from your garage door are usually indicative of a lack of lubricant or an accumulation of dirt or debris in the tracks. When removing debris, do not use harsh chemicals to clean the tracks. Once the track is clean, coat it with lubricant designed especially for garage doors, if possible. If you do not have access to this special type of lubricant, you can use WD-40 on the tracks and hardware.

Step 1: Check the metal tracks inside the garage. Look at the mounting brackets that hold the tracks to the walls. If they're loose, tighten the bolts or screws at the brackets. Working inside the garage with the garage door closed, examine the tracks for dents, crimps, or flat spots. If there are any damaged spots, pound them out with a rubber mallet, or with a hammer and a block of scrap wood. If the tracks are badly damaged, they should be replaced.

For more than 35 years, AE Door & Window has served the Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky areas with high-quality Clopay garage door products and exceptional services. We started as a small company operating out of a garage. In the decades since we first opened, we’ve grown into a regional provider that businesses and homeowners turn to when they need garage door products, services and repairs.
A standard double garage door is 7 ft. high by 16 ft. wide. Standard single doors are 7 ft. high by 8 or 9 ft. wide. Because the doors are so large, few home centers and only some garage door stores keep many doors in stock, so expect to order one instead of buying it off the shelf. Garage doors are available in wood, fiberglass and steel. Steel doors, like ours, are light, maintenance-free, affordable, readily available, and have an insulating value as high as R-19.
Remember, not all garage door springs are alike. They are not one size fits all. If yours breaks, make a note of the brand and color code on the spring you need to replace. We'll get you the garage door opener parts you need, from seal kits to torsion and extension spring kits. Save money by replacing garage door hardware instead of replacing the whole unit.